Fun from the Past Week

Thanksgiving already feels so long ago.  On Friday, my friends Tim and Christine, who are currently teaching in Hong Kong, came to visit.  We had a really great visit, and we did so much!  In only 48 hours we were able to visit a Temple and a Shrine, the fashion district, the electronics district, the Imperial Palace Gardens, the area where John went to school (that I had never seen before), along with a few other key places.  We also took them to our favorite restaurant, and discovered a fantastic ramen place with (spicy miso ramen is amazing!), did Karaoke, and went to the bar from Lost In Translation which is on the 50th floor (or maybe even higher) so there is an amazing view of the city.  While we were up there, there was a small earthquake and the elevators shut down, but then they didn't come back on.  Eventually, we were taken down the emergency elevators back in the staff area.

As I write this all down I realize how crazy much we did.  It reminds me of the weekend that Cindy and Ellie came to visit me in DC last fall.  But it was also great to visit with them, and for them to get to know John since they had only met him at our wedding.  So, everyone else should start planning their trips to come visit us now.

But other fun things have been going on, and I've been accumulating pictures that I want to post, so I'll go ahead and dump them here.

One night Raku and I came across this gentleman riding around in the sunroof of a Rolls Royce conducting wildly to the music from 2001: A Space Odyssey with a light up baton.  His driver went all over the neighborhood at about 5 mph.

I've also spent some time helping Raku put together some furniture that she ordered (and crawling in the boxes).

And finally, Wendy's has come to Japan (and even the street we live on).  It's much fancier here than in the US (note that it's 2 stories) and supposedly offers a lobster and caviar sandwich.  We found it to stay a little truer to the US menu than McDonalds does, and it has huge drinks!  We were so excited!